-
1. Khosla Goes to Hawaii to Test Out Cleantech
-
2. MVVA Designs Hudson Park and Boulevard
-
3. Maximizing Wave Power, by Design
-
4. Top Gear Hands Tesla Another Controversy
Khosla Goes to Hawaii to Test Out Cleantech
David Ehrlich - Big Green
Silicon Valley is heading west — further west — to test out clean technologies under a deal announced yesterday. Big-name cleantech investor Khosla Ventures said it’s teaming up with Hawaiian utility Hawaiian Electric Co. on the evaluation and pilot testing of solar, lighting, battery and other technologies.
Khosla and Hawaiian Electric, part of Hawaiian Electric Industries, did not disclose any names of startups they plan to collaborate with, but said they will work together with entrepreneurs and startups, aiming to speed up the commercialization of new products and services. In a statement, Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla said the partnership will help ensure that the clean energy technologies being developed can meet the demands of commercial deployment.
The sun and the waves of Hawaii have attracted a growing list of cleantech companies, including a deal that Hawaiian Electric signed just 15 days ago with California’s Better Place to build an electric car charging network on the Hawaiian islands. Earlier this year, San Diego’s HR BioPetroleum also announced a move to Hawaii, signing contracts with Hawaiian Electric and other companies to build a commercial-scale algae-to-biofuel facility on Maui.
And Khosla already has at least one Hawaiian project under its belt, backing biofuel researcher Hawaiian Bioenergy. Other partners in that biofuel firm include eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and Finistere Ventures.
More cleantech deals for the Aloha State could help Hawaii reach its target of getting 70 percent of the state’s electricity from renewable resources by 2030. Hawaii agreed to the target as part of an initiative it signed with the Deparment of Energy in January.
Click here to save cost on your IT demands
MVVA Designs Hudson Park and Boulevard
Olivia Chen - Urban design
Earlier this year Related Companies sealed the deal on New York’s Hudson Yards development, and we’re excited to announce that the competition to design Hudson Park and Boulevard is now coming to a close. Although the Hudson Yards Development Corporation has yet to formally announce a winner, Related has let slip that Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates will likely be the designers of the approximately 4-acre site! The project will convert a semi-industrial area into a lush green space complete with a linear park that will provide a link between the Hudson Rail Yards (located due south of the site) and 42nd Street.
Maximizing Wave Power, by Design
Katie Fehrenbacher - Audio
Researchers at Portugal’s Technical University of Lisbon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on a device to tap the power of waves, which was designed using millions of calculations in order to capture the maximum amount of energy possible in a specific location. The research (which was detailed in a recent issue of MIT’s EnergyFutures newsletter) was done to maximize the energy capture of a device called an oscillating water column (OWC) that has been used in water-power systems before, and is meant to be placed on or close to the shore; as waves hit the OWC the water level increases and decreases in the chamber, and in turn pushes trapped air into an opening, which drives a turbine.
The team plans to pilot the maximized OWC at the entrance of the Douro River in Porto, in northern Portugal, and eventually put three of them there, which together would generate 750 kilowatts of wave power. The group says the icing on the cake is that the OWCs can actually calm the waters of the area by absorbing some of the wave energy. The Portugal team is made up of Technical University of Lisbon Professors Antonio Falcao, Antonio Sarmento and Luis Gato, and MIT’s Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chiang Mei.
MIT’s innovation, which Mei is spearheading, is the numerical model used to calculate how the waves will hit the OWC, how the water will react inside and outside of it, and how the water behaves in the exact location in which it is placed. Through the model the researchers can do the necessary calculations (likely using various computer modeling software) to help design the OWC to maximize the energy absorption for that specific location.
Wave power is a promising, largely untapped form of clean power, and startups like these 13 are designing various devices to capture waves, tides and currents. But as MIT’s Mei acknowledges in MIT’s EnergyFutures newsletter, wave power could very well remain in the pilot phase for several more decades before becoming a commercial form of power.
Image courtesy of MIT’s EnergyFutures
Click here to save cost on your IT demands
Top Gear Hands Tesla Another Controversy
Josie Garthwaite - Automotive
Tesla Motors seems to find itself in the clarifying business more than most startups: There was the temporary transmission issue in 2007 (clarification: not designed to fail), the airbag waiver controversy back in February (the Roadster does have front airbags, but deployment of the front passenger airbag does not vary based on passenger weight). Now we have the case of the Top Gear Mischaracterizations.
As Wired reported last night, Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson “beat the snot out of a pair of Tesla Roadsters” on the British TV show. Video below.
Needless to say, Tesla was not pleased. Cue clarification: Tesla spokesperson Rachel Konrad says the batteries didn’t die, the cars weren’t pushed off the track (sure looks like they were), and most Tesla owners need 3.5 — not 16 — hours to recharge. Oh, and the brake failure? Just a blown fuse.
Click here to save cost on your IT demands
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment